Masters, Roger D. "Human Nature and Political Theory: Can Biology Contribute to the Study of Politics?" Politics and the Life Sciences 2, 2 (February, 1984):120-27.
[Seven commentaries and author response, pp. 127-50]
Introduction. Customarily, discussions of political theory begin from the concept of human nature. Are humans "naturally" selfish or is cooperation in the formation and maintenance of societies "natural" to our species? Although other issues are obviously germane to political thought, we take it for granted that political philosophers are heavily influenced by their definition of the "nature" of human beings. But why do we do this? More important, can our understanding be based on objective, factual knowledge, or are concepts of human nature mere prejudices and opinions?
Since the ancient Greeks developed the systematic study of political things, discussion of this topic has been one of the central concerns of political theorists. Over the last 15 years, I have been exploring approaches in other scientific fields which promise to clarify what it might mean to speak, scientifically, of human nature. To be more specific, I have been studying politics and political thought from the perspectives of structuralism (to see if political thinking has a nature), evolutionary biology (to see if political societies have a nature), and ethology (to see if political leadership has a natural element).
In what follows, I outline my own work in the form of propositions concerning the nature of political thought, the nature of politics, and the nature of political leadership. Research in each of these three areas reveals that both words in the phrase human nature need to be studied with the utmost care and lack of prejudice. Citations of my own publications should therefore be taken as shorthand references to the relevant literature rather than as a claim of definitive conclusions. However, in that the three approaches outlined below confirm that contemporary biology¾ if properly understood¾ can indeed illuminate our understanding of political theory (cf. Somit, 1976; Wiegele, 1979; Wahlke, 1979; Watts, 1981; White, 1981).